Wi-fi or wi-fry?

From European Voice's Entre-Nous column

9/5/07, 5:00 PM CET

Updated 4/23/14, 8:42 PM CET

Viviane Reding, European commissioner for the information society, is currently preparing another supposedly citizen-friendly coup, that of bringing blanket wi-fi coverage to Europe. She will propose in her forthcoming telecoms overhaul that the spectrum once allocated to analogue TV be dedicated instead to WiMax, which will keep citizens permanently hooked up to the net, whether in their cars, homes, at the park or on the beach. An unhelpful moment then for an international scientific study released on Friday (31 August). Scientists and health experts from the US, Sweden, Britain, China and the European Environment Agency in Denmark have concluded that radiation from technologies such as wi-fi can cause a range of worrying symptoms from headaches to changes in brainwave activity. The study, which calls for more stringent safety standards to combat potential wi-fry, is likely to be challenged by the IT industry.

There is something splendidly parochial about the state-aid investigation launched last week by the European Commission’s competition department into JC Decaux, a French advertising company. The question …